2010 Tour de France

Lore & Background

The 2010 Tour carried an extraordinary narrative from its very first kilometre in Munich. Team Saxo Bank fielded a GC lineup of Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, and Frank Schleck—three riders who, on paper, could each take the maillot jaune. The race became a study in internal rivalry as much as external competition, with the Schleck brothers and the Spaniard taking turns at the front on key mountain days.

The drama peaked in the final Alpine and Pyrenean stages, where Andy Schleck launched decisive attacks that left him in the yellow jersey heading into the Paris finish. Frank Schleck sat in second. For a brief, electric moment, the Schleck family stood atop cycling's highest stage. But the post-race laboratory results told a different story: Frank Schleck's sample tested positive for EPO, and forensic links to the infamous Eufemiano Fuentes operation implicated Andy as well. The UCI stripped Andy's result, and the yellow jersey was posthumously awarded to Contador.

The 2010 Tour remains a cautionary chapter in the sport's history—a reminder that the most beautiful races can be undone by the ugliest secrets. It sits alongside the 2006 and 2007 Tours in the annals of controversy, yet the on-bike battles, particularly the Schleck brothers' duels in the mountains, are still replayed by fans who remember the spectacle before the verdict.

In Their Own Story

The air above Col du Tourmalet tasted of diesel fumes and altitude. Andy Schleck, arms locked in his drops, felt the familiar burn in his quads as the gradient bit to ten percent. Behind him, a hundred metres back, Frank's head bobbed in the peloton's ragged tail. And further down, Contador's silhouette was a dark smudge against the grey sky, patient, calculating.

Andy looked over his shoulder. Frank looked back. They had done this a hundred times in training camps, in the quiet of a Luxembourg winter, the two of them chasing a dream their father had whispered over kitchen tables. But this was different. This was the Tour. This was the yellow.

He attacked. The peloton shuddered, stretched, and broke. Andy felt the road tilt beneath him, felt the world narrow to the next switchback, the next breath, the next terrible, glorious kilometre. Somewhere below, in a laboratory he would never see, a vial was already being capped. He did not know that yet. He only knew the road, the wind, and the brother in his mirror.

Reader's Guide

The 2010 Tour was unforgettable because three riders on the same team—Contador, Andy Schleck, and Frank Schleck—could all realistically win, and because the finish line in Paris would not be the final word.

The race opened in Munich, Germany, a symbolic first return to the country since 1987. The early flat and rolling stages saw breakaways and sprinters trade headlines, but the real story was building quietly in the GC table, where the Saxo Bank trio bunched within seconds of each other.

The turning point came in the mountains. In the Alps and then the Pyrenees, Andy Schleck launched repeated, sustained attacks that peeled his rivals off the front. Frank Schleck, his brother, matched him stage after stage, and the two Luxembourgers seemed destined to occupy the top two spots. Contador, ever the tactician, managed gaps with surgical precision, always within reach but never quite committing.

By the Paris finish, Andy wore yellow, Frank was second. The Schleck family celebrated. Then the labs spoke. Frank's EPO positive, the Fuentes connection, Andy's disqualification—the yellow jersey was stripped and handed to Contador. The race on the road was a masterpiece; the race in the courtroom was a tragedy.

Did You Know?

• All three riders who finished in the top three of the 2010 Tour—Contador, Andy Schleck, and Frank Schleck—rode for the same team, Team Saxo Bank, making it the most stacked GC lineup in modern Tour history.
• The 2010 Tour was the first to start in Germany since 1987, with the opening stage in Munich.
• The doping case that dethroned Andy Schleck was linked to Eufemiano Fuentes, the so-called 'Blood Doctor' who had also been at the centre of the 2006 Tour controversy.
• Andy Schleck and Frank Schleck were brothers, and for a brief moment in 2010 they stood together on the Tour podium before the classification was rewritten.